The classification of languages related here is the result of the sum of native speakers and those who speak a second language. This base date: 31/12/07 – estimated by the governments of respective countries, but compared with data – separated by language – of civil organizations. This test has become necessary to depoliticize the primary data and allow the information to approach the end of reality as possible. Thus, languages that often appear in similar relationships with force is known by many, examples of the “Kurdish” (the people without homeland), the “Berber” (widely used in North Africa, but discredit by various governments in the region for reasons political and religious); African languages as the “Hausa“, “Oromo“, “Yoruba” and, speaking South America as “Kichwa” (used daily by millions of people in the region of the Andes), the resurgence of the “Hebrew“, etc.

A curious fact about the relationship of language most spoken is considerable variation in the numbers of estimates. According to several linguists, technical factors (on different dates and different sources of data – census and estimates) and political (or even nationalist government alone) are the main cause of these variations. See sources.

The current (2007) 6,702 languages/dialects in the world, “between 3400 to 6120 will disappear before 2100′ due to natural disasters (such as the devastating earthquake that killed thousands of Kutchi on 26/01/2001, India), military invasions (such as the Islamic conquests in the centuries 7 and 8 in the Middle East and North Africa), colonizations and “discoveries” (such the European colonizations in Africa and discovered the Americas, Australia, etc.), religion (charges of “holy”languages after military victories), epidemics and the increasingly internationalization of human society.

Some languages listed here are technically dialects, not separate languages. Were listed separately because they are mutually incomprehensible, like the language/dialect Chinese, Hindi/Urdu and Arabic – see Notes.

Of the 6.5 billion (at 31/12/2007) of inhabitants of the planet, about 5,8 (89.23%) billion speak a 100 language related below:

Bulgaria (Kurdzhali Province and areas of South and West), Cyprus and Turkey, with significant nucleous of speakers in Australia, Austria, Georgia, Greece, Netherlands, Iran, Moldova, Macedonia, Syria, Azerbaijan and other countries.

India (Gujarati, Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli), with significant nucleous of speakers in South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Pakistan, United States, England, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Canada.

[1] English is the second most spoken language on the world (native speakers and others to use as a second language), but is the first language used on most world areas: scientific, commercial, diplomatic, academic, literature, internet, TV, Radio, Newspapers, etc.

[2] The Hindi is listed here separately from the Urdu to be different languages . The Hindi use Devanagari calligraphy, with extensive vocabulary inherited from Sanskrit and Urdu use Nastaliq calligraphy, with extensive vocabulary of Persian-Arabic origin. Despite this thousands of words have understood each other, so some linguists say language is the same – that the call of Hindustan – in two different forms of writing.

[3] A number of speakers of Russian language as a second language is decreasing in recent years due have been abolished “the obligation to study this language in the former USSR satellite countries.”

[4] The large number of people who use French as a second language is justified by scholars as
being a result of several factors, including: “… colonizations in the past, have been the diplomatic language International up to half of the 20th century, rich cultural production, efficient performance of the French alliance, and so on”.

[5] The Malay that in Indonesia is called the Indonesian language is the main language of the peoples who inhabit the Malay peninsula and the Indonesia. It is also called the Malay language in Singapore, Brunei and southern Thailand.

[6] The Egyptian Arabic is the most widespread form of Arabic due to the proliferation of films and other and cultural productions from Cairo (from the early 20th century) and the large number of Egyptian teachers who were hired to teach in several countries, especially in penísula Arabic.

[7] The Arab Maghrebi Arabic, called by the speakers of “Derija” (meaning dialect), is based on Arabic, French and Spanish and has a number of dialects – most understandable among themselves. It is the language/dialect predominant in the region of Maghreb – northern Africa, the Sahara desert and west of the Nile.

[8] Most of the words of Levantine Arabic is Arabic, but hundreds of others are of Turkish, Persian, English, French and Italian.

Turkish (Turkic) language is more than your list!!
because you sprated Turkic language to diffrent group like azeri, uygur, uzbek … it’s rong way to count number of spoken. Azeri, Uzbek, Uygur Kazak,.. are from same familiy of language TURKIC.
please!!!!!! 😦

Hi Habib
Thank you for your comment.
This issue is already related to research and the results will be used in the next update of this list. However, even when it comes to speaking the same family – as you correctly recorded, they are unintelligible to each other and use spelling rules inked.

Portuguese is not spoken by 270 million people, that’s impossible. You have to confirm your sources.
Around 205 million speak it as a mother tongue; around 220 million speak it as a mother and second language; and 240 million people live in the 9 countries and jurisdictions where Portuguese is the official or one of the co-official languages.

In Brazil, Portugal, Cape Verde and Sao Tome and Prince nearly 100% of the population speaks it. In Angola about 60% speak it. In Mozambique 40%. In Guinea-Bissau about 10%. in East Timor about 5%. And in Macau hardly 1%.

where is your reply, swahili is being spoken by more than 200 million people in eastern and southern africa and is a national language for kenya, tanzania, uganda, comoros, democratic republic of congo, south sudan, somalia, rwanda, burundia, zambia etc

Dear Emongaise.
Swahili (also known as Kiswahili ) is a Bantu language spoken in many African countries. However, your assertion that “…o Swahili is being spoken by more than 200 million people in
eastern and southern africa” is quite different of the data that we have from variety sources (governments, universities, independent research …); examples:
1. In the Comores the most spoken languages are Shikomoro (a blend of Swahili and Arabic), French and Arabic;
2. In the Democratic Republic of Congo the official language is French and the most spoken languages are Kingwana (a dialect of Kiswahili or Swahili), Lingala (trade language), Kikongo
and Tshiluba;
3. In the South Sudan the official language is English and all (more than 125, according to the government) indigenous languages are national languages (although there a strong
program of “Arabization” in process along the northern border);
4. In the Somalia the official language is Somali and the most spoken languages are Arabic, Swahili, English and Italian;
5. In the Rwanda the official language is English and the most spoken languages are Rwanda (Ruanda or Rwandan – Kinyarwanda, Bantu vernacular), French and Kiswahili (Swahili)
used in commercial centers;
6. In the Zambia the official language is English and the most spoken languages are Bemba, Kaonda, Lozi, Lunda, Luvale, Nyanja, Tonga, and about 70 other indigenous languages.
We would be grateful if you send us the sources of your information so we could check and cross with the data we have about this language.
Thank you for your participation.

population of Tanzania 45 million who ‘officially’ speak Kiswahili. Then add on those who speak it in Kenya and the surrounding countries (as you already have documented) and the fact that it is the official language of the East African Community and surely it must come on the list of 100 most spoken languages – at least 25th. A massive omission on your part I’m afraid.

Hi. I am Galician (Spanish), and I must inform you that we DO NOT speak Portuguese in Galicia, we speak Spanish and Galician (which is a coofficially-recognized-language, apart from Portuguese) so you can start counting a couple 2,5 less million of Portuguese speakers. Thank you.

At no time were recorded as the Galician’s speaking Portuguese as mother tongue and even as a second language in the preparation of this work statistical table.
Despite this, we know by governments documents from Spain and Portugal there is a small portion of the Galician population (on the border between Spain and Portugal) that, in addition to Spanish also speak Galician and Portuguese.
Thank you for participating. Come back and participate whenever you want.

Tamil Language also spoken by Tamil people living in USA, United Kingtom, United Arab Emirates, Kingdom of Soudi Arabia,Bahrain Qatar, Kuwait & other Middle East Countries, South Africa & Australia- P.R. RAJ

Tagalog has 20+ million native speakers but almost all Filipinos know the language because it is the official language of the country along with English, and the Philippines itself has almost 100 million people. In addition, The US itself has almost 2 million Tagalog speakers as of 2010.

For all the other readers, Catalan language is spoken in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, most part of the Valencian Country, Andorra, part of France, part of Aragon and the Italian city of Alghero. It is no dialect of any language as it has its own grammatical system, its own literature and it has developed by itself in the aforementioned territories. Currently it has 11.5 milion speakers and a very high social impact and presence, especially in Catalonia.It is missing in this list

Hi. I’m Aik Tun. I’m from Myanmar(Burma). I think Burmese speaker is not only 35 millions. It is more than you say. Burmese have more than 60 millions speaker and it is not only speak in Myanmar. It is speak in Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Bangladesh. Please check it. Thanks…

You entered Uyghur twice in 85 and 88
also Fula and Fufulde same language and you entered in 74 and 100
make the list longer to include Wolof, Bamana, Chichewa, Lingala, Twi, Finnish. and please put Swahili on the list.

Why is Arabic split into 8 different languages? That doesn’t make sense. The only split that makes sense is the Maghrebi Arabic, which is typically difficult for other Arabs to understand. Other than that, all the other dialects are perfectly mutually intelligible. It’s kind of like splitting english into British, American, Australian, etc english…